This morning, I stopped for a minute and thought about the larger meaning of a sign posted at the entrance of the Westin hotel in Long Beach, California. The sign read: “Warning: The Hotel Premises and Property Contain Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer and Birth Defect and Other Reproductive Harm.”
I concluded that it’s not just a warning sign for the people staying in the hotel.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is home to a striking amount of biodiversity. Though this biological diversity cannot be seen by those of us who live above the waves, we benefit from it nonetheless.
I was shocked to discover that only one percent of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is actually a sanctuary. In a few weeks, Superintendent Paul Michel, who administers the Sanctuary, will decide whether to add marine protected areas (MAPs) in the federal parts of the Monterey Sanctuary to add protection to the fish who swim there.
The Ocean Conservancy is urging people to contact Michel, and urge him to support the additional protection. Please, if you live in California, give a few minutes to help out.
A couple of days ago, I wrote an article describing the terrible environmental record earned by California Representative Duncan Hunter in Congress. He got a zero percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters. The reaction of his supporters was an indication of the pathological disregard for a clean environment among right wing activists in America today.
One supporter called the zero percent rating an “impressive recommendation” for the Hunter for President campaign. Another supporter, writing for a blog called Ohio Duncan Hunter for President, remarked, “If you are a conservative, you know there’s always something fun about ticking off the envirowhackos.”
We don’t think that asking someone running for President of the United States to earn more than a zero percent rating on environmental legislation makes us “envirowhackos”. It’s saddening to me to see that defending polluters who trash the Earth is regarded by some Americans as “something fun”.
(Source: Ohio Duncan Hunter For President, December 21, 2007)
Duncan Hunter, arepresentative in Congress for Southern California and Republican presidential candidate in 2008, seems to hardly have ever met an environmental cause that he gave a damn about. In fact, in 2006, Congressman Hunter didn’t meet a single piece of environmental legislation that he was willing to support. His rating in the League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard for 2006 was zero percent. Duncan Hunter didn’t vote in favor of keeping the environment clean one single time.
That kind of extremist, stubborn refusal to act as a steward of the Earth has no place in the White House in this time of escalating environmental crisis. (Source: League of Conservation Voters, National Environmental Scorecard, 2006)
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is best known for this proposal to create a Department of Peace that would counterbalance the power of the Department of Defense (once called the Department of War) in the American federal government.
Kucinich has introduced legislation to the House of Representatives to create a Department of Peace: HR 808, the Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act. On December 16, citizens in Sacramento, California will meet to discuss the bill, and its relationship to the development of a more thorough peace movement. The meeting will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Society, at 2425 Sierra Boulevard.
At the meeting, David Dionsi of the Teach Peace Foundation will also discuss developments in Iran, Iraq, and the issue of depleted uranium.
This week, the following states, along with the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba, announced the formation of the cross-border Western Climate Initiative, in which the member states and provinces agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent before the year 2020:
Many environmentalists are pointing out that the 15 percent reduction is just a fraction of what will be necessary to prevent catastrophic effects from global warming. However, other organizations are recognizing this agreement as a good first step until stronger accords can be reached.
The Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club notes that this legislation, “will require Utah to adopt tougher tailpipe emission standards similar to California’s, which could help tremendously towards improved air quality,” and that 95 of Utah’s electricity is provided by one of the dirtiest sources available: Coal.
Providing some more legal pressure for a clean up of the energy industry in western states like Utah, which spew pollution that the prevailing winds take to most of the rest of the United States, is indeed something worth recognition. However, the pressure from activists seeking clean air and action to confront the growing threat of global warming needs to remain high as well.
California Democrats are feeling confused this August by the odd behavior of one of their senators, Diane Feinstein. Without any visible political pressure on Senator Feinstein, she abandoned the interests of her California constituents and voted along with the Republicans in Congress in favor of the infamous Protect America Act.
Fresh from a series of hearings in which Alberto Gonzales was caught lying, over and over again, to Congress, the Protect America Act gives unprecedented new powers to Gonzales. That’s My Congress asks, “Why didn’t Senator Feinstein take the time to put the breaks on the inaptly-named ‘Protect America Act’ and think about it a little bit more? Does Senator Feinstein not care enough about this country to get it right?”
There’s only one other person besides Attorney General Gonzales that the Protect America Act gives any control over programs to conduct electronic surveillance: Not anyone in Congress, not any judge. That person is another political appointee, the Director of National Intelligence. That person right now is John Michael McConnell. McConnell is one of the original architects of the Total Information Awareness spy program.
Why would Diane Feinstein vote for such a thing? California Democrats have begun to speculate that the senator was subjected to some form of blackmail, or other form of unscrupulous influence.
That’s a question that all of California has to act. In the 20th congressional district of California, Democrats have another question to ask: Why did Jim Costa go with the Republicans and vote for the Protect America Act?
The good news for California Democrats is that Congressman Costa and Senator Feinstein are the only congressional Democrats from California who were foolish enough to vote for the Protect America Act. Senator Barbara Boxer and every House Democrat from California were wise enough to recognize a dangerous violation of the American constitutional trust when they see one.
